MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Getting attention means you are speaking to prospects’ needs, to their wants and desires, and to their present and current frame of mind.

Often, what is at the top of their minds is covered in news media. I learned this from Paul Hartunian:

First, you go to USA Today.com, especially if most of your target audience is predominantly in the United States and other western countries. USAToday.com summarizes what is at the top of people’s minds - be it a school shooting, a politician’s sex scandal or a football team victory - in the following categories:

• Most read
• Most commented
• Most recommended
• Most e-mailed

When you look at the Top 10 news stories on USAToday.com, you know what is influencing people’s feelings at this point:

…it’s about General David Petraeus’ testimonial

…it’s about the fall in sales of existing homes

…it’s about the baby born with two faces in north India

…it’s about the Women’s NCAA Tournament

This is what’s going on in their minds, and your role is to bridge the gap by speaking to them at their point of need.

Our role as marketers is to find a hot story – it doesn’t even need to be that relevant – and connect the product to the story. However, this technique can only be used on the day or the day after the news is released because that’s when it’s still hot in the minds of the prospects.

One of the best examples I’ve seen was when Shameless Shamus Brown, a sales guru who does really good email marketing, used this technique after Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal was covered by the press.

The day after Eliot Spitzer’s story was out, the subject line of his email read:

‘Did Eliot Spitzer ask for a discount?’

Anybody would click on that immediately. You see, I believe that the open rate for that email really shot up that day. Why? Because it was connected to a current event.

In that email,  he talked about sales technique; he explained that there are some clients who are not price sensitive at all, and Eliot Spitzer could be one of them.

The prostitute charged $5,000.00 dollars an hour…did Eliot Spitzer ask for a discount? Maybe a 20% 30% discount? No, he didn’t. The high price… the price insensitivity… the high premium gives these kinds of clients a sense of power and worth.

The same goes for press releases. As Paul Hartunian says, there’s a difference between ‘hot’ stories and ‘non-hot’ stories. A hot story means that it is urgent at that point in time. And the only way to ensure that your story is urgent at that point in time is to be in sync with current affairs of that time.

If there’s a new tax law coming up, you come up with a new Internet marketing product or press release that says, ‘if you buy my product you can beat the tax law’, or ‘this tax law will not affect you much if you buy my new product’. Chances are, people will listen to what you have to say because that’s what’s in the prospect’s mind at that point in time. 

If you run a multinational company, try to cater to other hot locations them as well, although most importantly, look at your key demographics and key geographic space. More often than not, however, US news is world news.

This secret, when implemented at the right time, will get more of your emails opened, your sales letters read, and your press releases quickly picked up by the press. This is only a small fraction of what this secret can do for you.

Recent posts by Kenneth

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About the Author

Kenneth Yu is a tormented artist, but he was determined not to be a starving one. This is the primary reason why this D&AD award-winning advertising creative has plunged into the world of Internet entrepreneurship, and the rest -- as they say -- is history. Straddling both the creative and business realm, Kenneth combines bullet-fast ideation and his vast experience working with the big brands to alchemize marketing gold as the Head Copywriter and Marketing Strategist in MindValley. He shares more out-of-the-box marketing and copywriting tips (plus cool irreverent stuff) on his Twitter

Check out other posts by Kenneth

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